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Saturday, November 25, 2006

Whitewash

Anyone who has ever walked down the long corridors of the Louvre or wandered through the intimate settings of the Musee d'Orsay has seen some of the finest artwork the world has ever produced.

Imagine every wall empty, every canvas burned.

Imagine the gold mosaics of the greatest cathedrals in Europe torn out and plastered over.

Think of the glorious frescoes in the Sistine Chapel covered with a fresh coat of whitewash.

See it happen in every major city of Europe - paintings destroyed, frescoes removed, mosaics smashed, statues crushed, stained glass shattered.

Make no mistake - these things will all be destroyed.Intentionally.Deliberately.

Just as surely as artillery shells destroyed the image of the largest standing Buddha in the world, so too will these artworks be demolished.

Europe is becoming Muslim.

Like the iconoclasts before them, orthodox Muslims do not permit images to be made of any living thing under heaven, lest it become a subject for idolatry.

Their idol is not an image.It is smashed stone, burnt canvas and broken glass.

There is no act so evil it cannot serve someone's purpose.There are some who see the rise of militant Islam as an opportunity.

If Islam can be portrayed as simply another expression of religious fervor, then perhaps all of mankind can be turned away from all religious fervor. For such people, the destruction of the beautiful things produced by two millennia of Christian faith serves a two-fold purpose.

First, it crushes the idea of religion as a positive force.

Second, it destroys the beautiful things that reminds the world of the God Who is Truth, Goodness and Beauty and of the religious faith that empowered us to create such true, good and beautiful things in His image.

Best of all, both goals are accomplished without supporters of secularism getting their hands dirty. They can quite correctly claim that they publicly opposed the destruction of the beautiful things, but the marauding religious nutcases could not be stopped. Wouldn't it be better if we rid the world of religion, and rule it without regard to fictional deities?

Many ask where the moderate Muslims are.I ask a different question.

Among those who refuse to fight for the sake of Christ, are there any who will fight and die for the sake of Beauty?

1 comment:

On this subject, James Taranto's "Best of the Web" at Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal had some very sobering remarks:

The Glass Is 1/20th Full

An interesting debate of sorts is going on about the future of Europe. In the New York Post, Ralph Peters, responding to "a rash" of unidentified "pop prophets," disagrees with those who think the Continent is in danger of falling under Shariah:

"The notion that continental Europeans, who are world-champion haters, will let the impoverished Muslim immigrants they confine to ghettos take over their societies and extend the caliphate from the Amalfi Coast to Amsterdam has it exactly wrong.

"The endangered species isn't the 'peace loving' European lolling in his or her welfare state, but the continent's Muslims immigrants--and their multi-generation descendents--who were foolish enough to imagine that Europeans would share their toys. . . .

"Don't let Europe's current round of playing pacifist dress-up fool you: This is the continent that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing, the happy-go-lucky slice of humanity that brought us such recent hits as the Holocaust and Srebrenica.

"The historical patterns are clear: When Europeans feel sufficiently threatened--even when the threat's concocted nonsense--they don't just react, they over-react with stunning ferocity. One of their more-humane (and frequently employed) techniques has been ethnic cleansing.

"And Europeans won't even need to re-write 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' with an Islamist theme--real Muslims zealots [sic] provide Europe's bigots with all the propaganda they need. Al Qaeda and its wannabe fans are the worst thing that could have happened to Europe's Muslims. Europe hasn't broken free of its historical addictions--we're going to see Europe's history reprised on meth."

Over at PowerLine, Mark Steyn begs to differ:

"The native European population is split three ways: some will leave, as the Dutch (and certain French) are already doing; some will shrug and go along with the Islamization of the continent, as the ever-accelerating number of conversions suggests; and so the ones left to embrace Fascism will be a minority of an aging population. It will be bloody and messy, as I write in America Alone, but it will not alter the final outcome. If you don't breed, you can't influence the future. And furthermore a disinclination to breed is a good sign you don't care much about the future. That's why the Spaniards, who fought a brutal bloody civil war for their country in the 1930s, folded instantly after those Madrid bombings. When you've demographically checked out of the future, why fight for it?"

Think about this: Peters is predicting a rebirth of European fascism, possibly including genocide--and he's the *optimist* of this pair.